"I suppose that when I say clothing - and flouncy, frilly, ruffly, lacy clothing at that - is the most precious thing in my life, most people of intellect would just laugh disparagingly and call me a silly girl. I might be scolded, but never praised: dedicating myself to love, scholarship, or work is valid, they'd say, but devoting my entire being to something so trifling as clothing is nothing more than frittering away my life. But why can't I devote my life to clothing? What's wrong with treasuring encounters with clothes more than encounters with people? People have different values. I don't think the convictions and philosophies of people who become doctors to save the lives of poor people in developing countries are superior or inferior to those of someone like me, who was enchanted by the Lolita look and decided to live according to the Rococo aesthetic that is its source. And even if I was wrong about that, and my aspiration to live as a Lolita is terribly foolish, or indeed the worst thing anybody could do, I still would not renounce it. Even if everybody in the entire world agrees that something is a piece of junk, if to my eyes it appears more precious and necessary that diamonds or the giant panda, I wouldn't hesitate for a moment to defend it to the death as the most important thing in the world."
From
Kamikaze Girls (Shimotsuma Monogatari) by Novala Takemoto, trans. Akemi Wegmuller (VIZ Media LLC, February 14, 2006), 41-42.
Photo from the
Kamikaze Girls film starring Kyôko Fukada (as Momoko) and Anna Tsuchiya (as Ichigo).
>> October 29, 2007, 8:25 am
by
La Carmina
in
Films + TV >>
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If you’re looking for Gothic Lolita inspiration, look no further than the character Claudia from the 1994 film Interview with the Vampire. Claudia, played by twelve-year-old Kirsten Dunst, is an orphan who is made into a vampire child by Louis (Brad Pitt) and Lestat (Tom Cruise). Hot-tempered and spoiled, she takes pleasure in toying with her victims before drinking their blood. (“A little child she was, but also a fierce killer, now capable of the ruthless pursuit of blood, with all a child's demanding.”) Claudia grows distraught because although her mind matures, she remains forever trapped in a child’s body. After failing to kill Lestat, she flees with Louis and is trapped by a coven of vampires, which exposes her to direct sunlight.
In my favorite scene, Claudia is standing in front of a mirror in a half-finished lace dress. The dressmaker pricks her hand; Claudia brings it to her lips to “kiss it better.” Later, Lestat discovers the dressmaker lying dead at her feet. He taps her hand lightly in punishment: “Claudia, Claudia, now who will we get to finish your dress? These impracticalities, cherie! Remember: never in the home.”
Fortunately, Claudia does not kill all of her tailors. In the movie, she models a sumptuous late 18th to late 19th century French wardrobe. Her empire dresses and voluminous coats are made of silk/velvet/satin, and generously trimmed with lace. Unlike the adult vampires, Claudia does not dress in black; her clothes tend to be off-white, sky blue, or light green. She frequently wears capes and wraps her blonde ringlets in ribboned bonnets.
Louis: You see that old woman? That will never happen to you. You will never grow old, and you will never die.
Claudia: And it means something else too, doesn't it? I shall never ever grow up.
